The first impression as Sky Ferreira appeared on stage at El Rey Theatre Sunday night turned out to be the right one. Dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and black shades, she paid tribute to Lou Reed, legendary Velvet Underground songwriter and solo artist, who passed away earlier that day. It was an appropriate move with sincerity at its core, not a shred of irony or immature hero worship apparent.

Ferreira’s set, on the other hand, functioned as a tool to break perceptions of the 21-year-old pop renegade. With her debut album Night Time, My Time dropping this week, she has completed a journey that can be traced to her early teen years of posting homemade recordings on MySpace, which led to a record deal in 2009 and the release of this much-delayed first LP.

These days, however, it isn't her start that has people talking but her associations in the modeling and music scenes, most notably her boyfriend Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV. Ferreira’s wild-child lifestyle has been the subject of much speculation that was all but confirmed last month when the couple was busted in New York with heroin and Ecstasy.

Finger-pointing from fans and the media sparked Ferreira to tell Billboard she wasn’t charged and that “I know for a fact I’m not a drug addict.” She added: “I would be in rehab; I would not be on this Vampire Weekend tour. And I wouldn’t be able to go on stage everyday and deal with this.” Two days later, she canceled those Vampire Weekend dates because of vocal cord issues and wound up scrapping all shows until Sunday’s record-release party in L.A.

Though the crowd included a particularly druggy-looking contingent and an unexpected number of Sky lookalikes, Ferreira herself did not appear ragged, and her banter, though a little giggly, was coherent and no cause for concern. Any awkwardness came from her near-debilitating stage fright, which has caused her to break down in the past.

The singer also noted how unfortunate her timing has been, but it was easy to move past that at El Rey given her Reed outfit, similarly-clad four-piece backing band and the punk attitude she exuded for opening song “Boys.” That instantly helped wipe away skepticism that seeps in when pop singers like this work with the best talent money can buy, including L.A. fixture Jon Brion, multiple Grammy nominee Greg Kurstin, Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson and more.

Ariel Rechtshaid, recently praised for his work with Haim, Vampire Weekend and Charli XCX, wound up producing much of the final product and co-writing the album with Ferreira. His rock background and her influences push the pop away from the center on the album. And indeed, on Sunday pop didn’t really make it into the building.

Her most loyal fans didn’t seem to know what to make of much of Ferreira’s act. The single “You’re Not the One” and “24 Hours” are more traditional, four-on-the-floor bangers, but any party spirit was soon crushed by Ferreira’s experimental side. “Omanko" came across as pop art, the singer repeating lines about “Japanese Christmas” and “Japanese Jesus.” Her album’s title track (and this night’s set-closer) devolved much differently than it does on record, with Ferreira using a second distorted microphone, creating a dark noisy feel akin to Chelsea Wolfe's work.

Some songs she sang fine, on others she was less convincing, and all of them featured little intros, something she will learn to ditch, as it saps momentum. During the encore, she flat-out forgot the words to her well-known tune “Everything Is Embarrassing.” Before that, she covered Reed’s “Sunday Morning” and promptly apologized for its poor quality.

Yet it was genuine, and strangely, the worse Ferreira performed, the more likable she became. Pop is so keen on gloss and perfection, and the album reflects that aesthetic, but a performance as clunky as this one takes down all barriers and shows what a newcomer is really made of.

When she realized “Everything Is Embarrassing” was, well, embarrassing, she stopped the song and started it over, faring significantly better the second time. She then thanked people for coming and tried to end the show on that note, clearly unversed in how to end a concert – only to be persuaded by fans to perform one last song, her 2010 single “One.” It was unrehearsed and not very good, either, but what other starlets do you know who would attempt something so off the cuff?

For the general public, Ferreira’s album release will likely center on two topics: her drug use and her breasts, which she bares on the cover. Sunday’s show may have proved she needs work to reach full potential, but more importantly, it proved she’s about much more than heroin and nipples.

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